Wednesday, July 6, 2016

Chelsea Manning Rushed To Hospital After Reported Suicide Attempt In Prison

Chelsea Manning

Reuters

Chelsea Manning, a former soldier who is serving a 35-year prison sentence for violating the Espionage Act, was hospitalized Tuesday after what officials believe was an attempted suicide.

Manning had been serving out her sentence at the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, when she was taken to the hospital “during the early hours of July 5,” according to CNN, who cited U.S. Army spokesman Colonel Patrick Seiber.

Another Army official confirmed Manning’s hospitalization to BuzzFeed News. Her current condition, however, was not immediately known.

According the lead attorney on Manning’s defense team, Nancy Hollander, officials at Leavenworth prevented her from speaking with her client as she was reportedly taken to the hospital.

“We’re shocked and outraged that an official at Leavenworth contacted the press with private confidential medical information about Chelsea Manning, yet no one at the Army has given a shred of information to her legal team,” Hollander said in a statement to BuzzFeed News.

A scheduled call that she had set up with Manning on Monday was also canceled at the last minute, Hollander added. Now, she said, Army officials have told her that the earliest she can contact Manning is Friday morning.

“We call on the Army to immediately connect Chelsea Manning to her lawyers and friends who care deeply about her well-being and are profoundly distressed by the complete lack of official communication about Chelsea’s current situation,” Hollander said.

The month after her July 2013 conviction for violating the Espionage Act and other laws in relation to leaking thousands of classified documents to Wikileaks, Manning announced she would live the rest of her life as a woman. The Army eventually agreed to supply her with hormone transition therapy.